Federal Magistrate Judge Angel Mitchell sanctioned three attorneys on Sept. 22 for releasing confidential information from a lawsuit regarding the 2022 fatal shooting of Taylor Lowery by Topeka police officers. The ruling publicly admonishes lawyers LaRonna Lassiter Saunders, Sarah Foster, and Lauren Bonds for violating an agreed-upon protective order by sharing a restricted training slide with media channels.
Sanctions Imposed in Topeka Police Excessive Force Lawsuit
Magistrate Angel Mitchell issued an order on Sept. 22 granting a motion for sanctions brought by defense attorneys representing Topeka police officers Sgt. Scott McEntire, detective Alex Wall, and officers Malcolm Gillum, Justin Good, and Bradley Netherton. The court publicly admonished plaintiffs’ counsel LaRonna Lassiter Saunders, Sarah Foster, and Lauren Bonds—who is the executive director of the National Police Accountability Project—and ordered them to pay defendants’ attorney fees for bringing the motion, as reported by The Capital-Journal and USA TODAY Network.
The underlying lawsuit stems from the Oct. 13, 2022, incident in which Topeka police officers fired 34 shots at Taylor Lowery. Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay previously concluded that the officers were justified in the shooting, stating that Lowery initially carried a knife before dropping it and holding a wrench during the second volley of gunfire. Lowery’s young daughter and her mother, Da’Mabrius Duncan, who acts as special administrator for Lowery’s estate, filed the excessive force suit.
Protective Order Violations and Media Disclosures
According to Magistrate Mitchell’s ruling, the attorneys breached discovery rules by disclosing a confidential training slide from Officer Netherton’s personnel file. The Topeka Capital-Journal published an online article on May 15 stating that the legal team provided copies of Topeka Police Department de-escalation training materials instructing officers to have a “plan to kill.” Four days later, on May 19, the National Police Accountability Project published an article on its website joining the plaintiffs’ legal team, linked directly to the confidential portion of Netherton’s file, and included quotes from Foster and Bonds.
Mitchell noted that the attorneys conceded the training file was marked confidential. The judge wrote in the ruling that counsel published the slide publicly in an obvious attempt to sway public opinion in the plaintiffs’ favor. The order stated that the attorneys did not accept responsibility for the violation, instead attempting to shift the blame by claiming the defendants over-designated documents as confidential and that the training slide did not qualify for protection.
Court Rationale for Public Admonishment
In her ruling, Magistrate Mitchell determined that a public admonishment is a measured sanction appropriate when severe penalties are unnecessary. The court found that the attorneys utilized public media channels specifically to shape public perception of the ongoing litigation. The decision orders the payment of defense attorney fees alongside the formal reprimand for violating the discovery protective order.
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